Friday, March 19, 2010

In the beginning…

Oh, no, nothing that serious. I'm just going to write about my adventures with my horse Major! Mainly so I'll be able to see our progress. It is easy to forget what we've accomplished, as day-to-day it isn't much, but over time I see a great trail horse emerging.

I had 10 years of riding (only as an adult) before making the jump to buying my own. I had a couple years of horse misery (buying a great horse, going permanently lame, retiring him, him dying). After some time, I got Major in August 2009. Major was a green 6-year-old arab, informal training only. My great trainer thought I could do it...and I didn't really believe her, though now I see that I can. I should do more arena exercises, but I get bored really quickly training myself. So we hit the trails! (we'll work in the arena more, I know we need to…)

Major is brave and bold, and definitely thinks he knows best...we're working on that! In the arena he listens and is very well behaved. On the trail, I have a different horse. Often he just wants to go faster and faster, not understanding the rocky patch up ahead is NOT for cantering horses. In a short time he is getting so much better. Now I can actually see that he'll be a really great horse once we both figure out what we want. For now, we do lots of circles and listening exercises on the trail.

I'm going to use this blog to chronicle the trails and trials of our adventures. This will be like a calendar for me, so probably not very interesting to anyone else. I'm also going to try and keep track of: photos of Major's feet (he's barefoot), my use of hoof boots, my tack and how it is working/not working, maybe LD endurance (?) and any other random thoughts...